Saturday, May 7, 2016

Staunton, May 7 – Kyiv must reject
calls by Berlin and Paris to change the Ukrainian constitution and allow
elections in the occupied Donbas because these calls, which reflect Moscow’s exploitation
of the desire of the two European leaders to be seen as peace makers, would
result in the destruction of the Ukrainian state, Andrey Piontkovsky says.

But
under no circumstances should Ukraine agree. On the one hand, Moscow has not
fulfilled any of the conditions of the Minsk agreements. The ceasefire is shaky
and “all the rest is fantasy. Moscow will never withdraw its forces and hand
over the border, and consequently [Ukrainians] need not destroy their state for
the ambitions of Holland and Merkel.”

Instead,
Ukraine should retain its current constitution and treat the Donbas as “temporarily
occupied territories. That is all,” and from that perspective, “all that takes
place there is the responsibility of the aggressor [Russia] and the
[Moscow-backed] occupation authorities.”

By
calling for elections in the occupied territories, Putin is seeking to insert “a
cancerous tumor within Ukraine.” That must be rejected, and Kyiv must explain
to its “Western allies” that there is a “very simple reason” it is doing so: “Moscow
has fulfilled nothing [of the Minsk agreements] not even the call for a cease
fire.”

In
a related comment, Piontkovsky says that Kyiv should not try to re-integrate
the occupied territories too quickly as given where things stand now, “this
could be dangerous.” Instead, the Ukrainian army should maintain its defensive
positions on the demarcation line and not allow Russian forces to move further,
“fight corruption and build a legal state.”

Because
these are occupied territories, “sooner or later they will be returned,” the
Russian commentator says, but if they remain as they are now under the rule of “bandits
assigned and controlled by Moscow, Ukraine doesn’t need them and they are very
dangerous for it.” Indeed, a too rapid return would be a roadblock on Ukraine’s
path to Europe.